Bradley Partner Whitt Steineker Quoted in Area Development on How Employers Have to Adapt to Changing Cannabis Laws

Bradley attorney Whitt Steineker was quoted in Area Development on how corporate human resources and legal departments are having to operate in the changing landscape of cannabis-related laws. Companies can find it challenging enough to navigate the waters in a single state, but countless companies operate in multiple jurisdictions, some in which marijuana use has been decriminalized, some where it’s just as outlawed as it always has been.

Consider a case of an employee with a doctor’s note in a state where medical marijuana is permitted. If that state is Ohio, for example, “employers are not prohibited from refusing to hire, discharging or disciplining a person because of the use or possession of medical marijuana, nor are employers prohibited from establishing and enforcing a zero-tolerance drug policy,” observed Steineker. On the other hand, “a federal trial court in Connecticut recently held that an employer could not enforce its zero-tolerance drug policy against a medical marijuana user.”

This changing legal environment makes it challenging to keep company policies up-to-date, particularly for companies that operate in multiple jurisdictions with widely varying laws. “As frustrating and inefficient as it is for companies operating in multiple jurisdictions, unfortunately there is not a good way to have a single policy for all U.S. jurisdictions,” explained Steineker.

The complete article, “Employers Delve Into the Weeds of Cannabis Law,” first appeared in Area Development on April 8, 2019.